Skyrim harem
by Chooch77
Summary: I have never read a Skyrim only harem story! Please read and review
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Yo! This is a Skyrim fanfic that I have decided to make. **

**Name of OC: AI**

**I am going to do my version of the game starting from the choice in Helgen. This means very many differences throughout the game.**

**I am going to present a quote from the actual screen of the game. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skyrim, the elder scrolls, or any of the characters presented in the game. I do own any ocs in the game, though.**

**Chapter 1: Dragon strikes**

_And the scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, that when brothers wage war come unfurled! Alduin, Bane of kings, ancient shadow unbound, With a hunger to swallow the world!-Song of the Dragonborn_

AI had opened his eyes from the darkness to see white all around him. Snow was falling from the sky, and he was moving in the carriage of an imperial. He cursed as soon as he saw Ulfric, supposed 'true king' of Skyrim. AI knew that he was heading for the chopping blocks.

AI looked around and tried to use a skiv that he had from his escape from the mine. He cursed himself for having to free the forsworn bastards from their imprisonment, but it was either let them go free or die in the mines, having been blamed by the so-called 'king' of the forsworn due to his heritage. AI cursed as he realized that whoever caught him must have found it. He cursed even worse when he looked down at himself and saw that his armor had been removed from his body.

"Hey, you," A guy adjacent to me said, "finally awake? You were trying to cross the border, right?"

AI just sighed and nodded his head.

"Walked right into that imperial ambush? Same as us, and that thief over there!" The guy continued before pointing out the guy in rags close to me.

"Damn Stormcloaks, Skyrim was fine until you came along!" The thief said.

AI snorted real quietly, unnoticed by everyone.

"Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I would've stolen that horse and been halfway to Emerfeld!" The thief finished.

AI, unable to contain himself anymore, said, "That's a load of shit. Skyrim was decaying from the inside out before the stormcloaks came in! The forsworn were vying for control, while the merchants held the money and goods in their hands and were just continuing to give it to the Thalmor for free, while being forced to sell it to everyone else at inflated prices because of this, actually giving people reasons to join the four different forces vying for control! It's laziness happened to be what created the forsworn, and helped the corrupt. Plus, don't go blaming your problems on others, judging by your attire, you probably weren't very stealthy to begin with."

"You there, you and me, we shouldn't be here. It's these stormcloaks the empire wants." The idiot thief said, ignoring my interruption completely.

"We're all brothers and sisters in bonds, now, thief." The blonde said.

"Shut up back there!" The imperial up front said.

"What's wrong with him, huh?" The thief said, completely ignoring both me, the blonde, and the imperial.

"Watch your tongue!" The blonde said, "You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the _true _high king!"

"Ulfric," the thief said, "the Jarl of Windhelm? You are the leader of the rebellion. If they captured you... Oh gods! Where are they taking us?"

"I don't know where we're going, but soveirgngard awaits us." The blonde said.

AI just smirked at him before saying, "You know what? I don't think a thief should go to soveirgngard, they belong in the void!"

The blonde said, "Yes, that's true enough!"

AI got up, slightly startling the wagon and annoying the imperial ("Sit back down!"), before going over to the thief and throwing him off the wagon. The thief was thought to be trying to escape and was killed quickly with an arrow through the chest.

AI then sighed and said, "I hate people like him. They do not deserve to be called a thief!"

The blonde quirked a brow, before saying, "You feel very strongly about this, are you a guild member?"

AI said, "No, I wanted to become one, but was born in the wrong place."

The blonde said, "Hey, what village are you from, fish person? A person's last thoughts should be of home."

AI said, "It doesn't exist anymore. Wiped out completely for worshipping Talos."

"General Talios, sir! The headsmen is waiting." One of the imperials exclaimed as Helgen came into view.

"Good, let's get this over with." One of the imperials said.

"Look at him, general Talios, the military general, and it looks like Thalmor are with him." The blonde said.

"Damn elves, I bet they have something to do with this." The blonde continued.

Ai sighed, before saying, "You know, not all Thalmor think themselves superior, one of them actually saved my life when my village was destroyed."

The blonde looked extremely interested to hear that, as he had obviously only met with the stereotypical Thalmor. Ulfric, in his first reaction since I met him, just scoffed.

"This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. Wonder if Ilyad is still making that mead with Juniper berries." The blonde said, trying to get Ulfric's reaction out of his mind. "When I was a boy, the imperial walls used to make me feel safe."

The guards stopped the carriage and let us out.

"Let's go, shouldn't keep the gods waiting for us." The blonde said.

"Step towards the block when we call your name." A female voice said. "One at a time!"

"Empire loves their damn lists." The blonde muttered with contempt.

"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm," A scribe read off.

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." the blonde said.

"Ralof of Riverwood," The scribe continued reading names.

Ralof, the blonde, stepped forward and up behind the Jarl.

"Nokir of Rorriksted," The scribe said. "Nokir of Rorriksted!"

"Killed him. Petty thief who couldn't take what he got dealt." Ai said.

"Wait, you there, step forward." The scribe said.

Ai did what they asked.

"Who are you?" The imperial asked.

"Ai the last Maormer." Ai said with lots of pride.

"Ralof looked back in shock, and the imperials all stared at Ai.

"What should we do? He is not on the list." the scribe said, coming back to himself.

"Kill him with the rest." The woman said with scorn.

Ai just stepped up as the scribe offered some apologies. "Save it," Ai barked, "it is not your fault that your superior is a racist idiot."

Ai just went up to the block before they could do anything to him.

When Ai got to the block, a guy was going on and on about how they were going to kill Ulfric and use his death to restore the peace. He just ignored the idiot and the priestess till a stormcloak jumped up and said, "Enough with the talking! I thought you were going to execute us!"

Ai just smirked at the guy, knowing that he would've done the same thing in a few minutes.

Ai's ears then picked up a sound of wings beating. Ai looked around to see what would be making it, then ignored it.

"My ancestors are smiling at me, imperials, can you say the same?" The Stormcloak questioned before getting his head chopped off.

"Next, the _fish_," The woman said.

Ai moved up and heard a fierce roar, before seeing a black beast with wings and scales on its back.

The beast shot down on top of the tallest tower and landed there. It then roared and caused meteors to fall from the sky. The Imperials were distracted by the beast and Ralof started talking to him.

"Come on, the gods won't give us another chance," he said. "This way. Follow me!"

Ralof then started running past the debris the dragon was causing, and into a tower.

"Jarl Ulfric, what is that thing! Could the legends be true!" Ralof said.

"Legends don't burn down villages." Ulfric stated.

"We need to move now!" Ralof said after hearing a closer roar. "Up through the tower. Let's go!"

Ai then rushed up the tower, only to be blocked as the dragon rammed into it. The dragon then shot flames inside, which forced Ai down a few steps so he could avoid the fire.

"See you on the other side, jump through the roof and keep going!" Ralof improvised.

Ai did as he was told, but got a small burn on the way down.

Ai met up with some imperials on the way down, getting a child away from the wreckage.

"Still alive prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to stay that way."

Ai started following the imperial when he went in between a house and a wall, barely avoiding the dragon's fire.

"Ralof, you damn traitor, out of my way!" the imperial exclaimed.

"We are escaping. You are not stopping us this time!" Ralof responded.

"He's right, you aren't stopping us from escaping, in fact, you're helping us!" Ai said.

"Huh?" They both replied eloquently.

"Do you really think a dragon attack is a good time to fight? We need to work together to escape this thing!" Ai said exasperatedly.

"Okay, you have a point." Ralof conceded.

"Let's go! I know a way out of here!" Hadvar said.

Ai and Ralof quickly followed Hadvar through the keep, carefully avoiding the stormcloaks and imperials so as to not get accused of being traitors.

Hadvar then said, "Hold up, there is no way to avoid this next room, so let me cut you loose. I will not be able to go back to the keep after this, but it is worth it to escape a dragon."

They then burst into the room after stealing some weapons off the ground.

Hadvar actually blinked in shock as he saw the dead bodies of stormcloaks and imperials. "Okay, looks like they took each other out." Ralof said, in slight shock at seeing his dead men.

"Let's just keep going before this place collapses." Ai urged.

They both nodded before sprinting through the keep in order to avoid the debris.

The group had barely managed to cross a bridge before the debris destroyed it, but they had to keep going and would no matter what.

"Dead end!" Hadvar gasped out.

"No its not!" Ai said as he saw a small tunnel. "Through here!"

They rushed through, only to meet a few large spiders. Ai, remembering these particular animals from a book thought like an encyclopedia.

Frostbite Spider- a large, venomous spider that is as deadly as it is named for. It has a deadly poison and can spit the poison with a long distance attack. Not very deadly. Poison is slow acting. Avoid the larger ones. Danger level if faced: nonexistent-low.

The three rushed the spider and took it out with relative ease, as it was startled and could not attack three targets at once.

The three kept going through the cavern, until they spotted a bear.

Cave Bear- a large, deadly bear that is common in caves. It has deadly claws and fangs. Relatively slow. No defensive capabilities. Avoid if possible. Danger level if faced: low-medium.

"We can take it out, or try our luck at sneaking past." Ralof said.

Ai replied, "The only way we are sneaking past, is dead."

Ai then saw something that made his blood boil, two wolf cubs on their own trying to hid from the bear.

Ai then readied his arrows and shot two of them very quickly before stepping on a twig to make sure the bear turned away from the cubs.

The bear roared as it started trying to attack him, only to get shot by five more arrows and go down with relative ease from a well placed sword swing from Ai.

Ai then walked over to the cubs before picking them up and putting them inside the hood of his shirt.

"What did you do that for?" Hadvar asked, a bit confused by the action.

"I couldn't leave them to die like I may have had I not been saved, besides that, they are too young to take care of themselves and would die in a few days without help."

Hadvar just nodded his acceptance at the answer, remembering who he was dealing with.

The trio then got out of the cave without a lot of incidents.

Hadvar said, "Get down!" suddenly.

The other two complied, sensing the urgency. In a few seconds, they were glad they did as the dragon flew over them.

The trio let out a breath they did not realize that they were holding and sagged their shoulders in relief that the dragon had passed overhead.

"Let's go to riverwood, it is not far from here." Ralof said.

"What's that?" Ai asked as they passed a trio of monuments.

"Oh, those are known as standing stones. You can only receive a blessing from one at a time though. They are (pointing left to right) the mage stone, thief stone, and warrior stone." Hadvar said.

Ai immediately felt a calling from the middle one and grabbed it.

"That was the thief stone. It ups your abilities in stealth, pickpocketing, lockpicking, speech, and alchemy. Neither of us are any good at those skills, we prefer the warrior path." Ralof said.

"Well, it is a good thing I have it then. Someone has to be good at subtlety." Ai teased.

"Hey!" They both shouted.

Ai just burst out laughing before saying, "come on, let's go to riverwood."

**Done! This is the first chapter to my Skyrim story. This will be a harem.**

**The girls in it so far are:**

**Aela**

**Astrid**

**Babette**

**Camilla**

**recommend other girls please and review!**


	2. Riverwood, the golden claw, Riften

**A/N: Yo! This is a new chapter to my Skyrim harem story. I am now pleading with people to start writing more singularly (non-crossover) Skyrim harems. This chapter will contain the miscellaneous missions inside of Riverwood, then it shall head to Bleakfalls Barrow, and finally, it shall head to Riften in the very end of the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Skyrim or any of its affiliated characters. Nor do I own any of the traditional magic attacks, I do, however, own any attacks that I, myself, create.**

**Now let's begin the chapter**

**Chapter 2: Riverwood, The Golden claw, Riften**

It had taken the misfit grouping of the wolves, AI, Hadvar, and Ralof an hour or two to get to Riverwood.

They decided to go past the gate through the side entrance in order to hear the rumors without attracting any attention.

"-dragon in Helgen." Someone said.

"That's just a rumor." One of the soldiers shot down.

"People saw it." The person said again.

"Hallucinations." The soldier replied.

The group sat back and listened to the soldier shoot down every single argument that the person put up to them with no waste of time or hesitation between either of them.

"Hmm, we need to talk to our families." Ralof replied.

"Gerdur, first, then we can talk to your family, Hadvar." Ai said.

"Why Gerdur first?" Hadvar asked, a bit impatient to get back to his family and tell them what had happened in Helgen.

"Because then we can patiently explain it to multiple people who all hate the Stormcloaks, why we have a Stormcloak with us." Ai explained, impatiently wanting to just get this over with due to the divide in the land.

"Good reasoning, lad." Ralof said.

They spotted Gerdur within a few seconds of their talking through the situation.

"Gerdur!" Ralof called, throwing all caution of their situation to the wind.

"Ralof!" Gerdur replied, hugging her brother who had escaped the chopping block.

"I have heard all kinds of rumors about what happened in Helgen. What in the world is going on?" Gerdur asked.

"A dragon attacked." Ralof replied.

"A dragon attacked! Good heavens, I thought those were only legends until now." Gerdur replied, shocked. Gerdur then noticed Ralof's travelling companions and asked, "Ralof who is your new friend and why are there two wolves with him? And why is there a Stormcloak with him?"

Ai and Hadvar then stepped up to explain what had happened in Helgen to them and why exactly they had decided to band together, which brought Hadvar and Ralof straight back into an argument about the civil war before Ai intervened with them, having had enough of putting up with their issues with each other.

"Enough!" Ai barked, finally having enough of watching their petty fights with each other.

"He started it!" Both Ralof and Hadvar shouted while pointing at the other person.

"I don't care who started it, I am ending it. Read this, it should help you understand exactly why the war was caused and why Ulfric has rebelled." Ai said, throwing a book at them that he had stolen from a dead Thalmar body in Helgen.

Ralof and Hadvar, both not wanting to annoy Ai anymore, just grumbled a bit before sitting down and reading the book.

After reading the book, they were shocked. "So you mean to tell me, that the Thalmar agreement is actually what caused the ban of the worship of Talos?" Ralof asked.

"That's right, it was a necessary agreement with the Thalmar, quite frankly, I am one hundred percent sure that they will not follow this agreement for much longer, and wouldn't have in the first place, so they made sure to make it look like the Stormcloaks were the cause and decided to rebel against the empire by setting a completely unreasonable term that the empire would be forced to follow, lest start another war with the Thalmar." Ai explained to Ralof and Hadvar.

Hadvar grew extremely angry at that. "So you mean to tell me, that all this time, it wasn't the empire versus the Stormcloaks or anything like that, it was a Thalmar ploy for dominance over the land of Skyrim!" Hadvar ended up shouting the end of that sentence.

"That's right, but right now, we have more important things to do." Gerdur said.

"Like what?" Ralof snapped, having completely forgotten the reason that they were there in the first place.

"Like telling the Jarl of Whiterun to send some more troops in case of a dragon attack on Riverwood or any other unprotected city." Gerdur snapped.

"True, I may not like the guy that much, but even I know that idea has its merits." Ralof said.

"You just don't like him because he doesn't want to get involved in the war, but now that you know about all of this, how do you feel about him?" Ai questioned him.

"I guess that would explain him staying neutral. He probably explained his decision to the emperor, so they let him stay neutral, so that they would have at least one place protected against the Thalmar whenever they attacked." Ralof said, calming down a little from the earlier revelations that they had learned.

"Right now, we need to go tell Hadvar's family about the situation, and maybe do a few things around Riverwood, I think it would be prudent, based on the previous revelations, to make a side for ourselves, not involved in the war, but to combat the Thalmar." Ai explained.

"Count me in." Gerdur said.

"Me too." Ralof and Hadvar said.

Ai smiled to himself as the wolf cubs barked happily at the sentiment that he had gotten.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After explaining the situation to Hadvar's family, they were understandably furious about what the Thalmar had done, and agreed to join up with the new group of people involved in the war.

Then the group had checked in to the Sleeping Giant Inn, where they met a guy who was playing the lute.

"Oh, how I wish that Camilla would return my affections instead of that dreaded Faendal." The man that had introduced himself as Sven said.

Sven then got a gleam in his eye and said, "Hey, you would do me a favor for some quick gold, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, why?" Ai asked.

"I want you to give this love letter to Camilla for me." Sven explained.

Ai shrugged his shoulders before leaving the Sleeping Giant Inn and heading to the place he had scouted out as Faendal's house.

The wolf pups barked in confusion, having thought that he would have headed to the Riverwood trader like Sven had asked.

Ai then explained to the wolf pups, "It's similar to how your mother hunted. Why in the world would you make the minimum, when you have a chance to get the maximum amount of money, with a little bit of trickery?"

The wolves yipped in agreement, satisfied with that argument, before going to sleep.

"Lazy pups." Ai chuckled.

Sadly, they weren't all the way asleep and bit him on the neck.

This commotion woke up Faendal, who came to the door and asked irritably, "Yeah, what do you want?"

"Sven asked me to deliver this forged letter to Camilla and say it was from you." Ai said.

"He did, did he?" Faendal asked, growing a malicious smirk on his face. "Hold up one second."

Faendal rummaged around a bit before finding what he was looking for. "Here it is. The forged letter from Sven, I want you to take that to him and I will give you a good sum of gold."

Ai just smirked, knowing that he would make twice the gold that he was going to make beforehand in a good amount of time.

Ai then stopped at the two story building that had a sign that said, "Riverwood Trader" on it.

Ai opened the door and said, "Hello is a Camilla Valerius in?"

The two people that had identified themselves in the argument then looked up to them. And the petit girl with black hair said, "Yes, that is me."

"Sven asked me to give you this fake letter, and when I showed it to Faendal, Faendal asked me to give you this fake letter." Ai said.

Camilla grew furious as she read through both forgeries. "Why those no good, rotten scumbags! Thank you for bringing these to my attention, here's some gold for your good deed."

Camilla handed over a small bag of gold that contained fifty pieces for him to use.

Lucas said, "That was a good thing that you did for my girl here. Tell you what; I will give you some armor and weapons in addition to some gold if you do something for me."

"What is the task?" Ai asked, having a pretty good idea but always knowing that you should never assume.

"You can go and retrieve the golden claw for us. It was the official marking of our place before it got stolen." Lucas said.

"I want to go too." Camilla said excitedly.

"No." Ai replied simply.

"Why not?" Camilla asked.

"You're not trained yet. You would just be a burden right now." Ai said. However, seeing her pouting face allowed him to add something on. "However, I am heading to the Thieves' guild of Riften to train some and hopefully join it. From what I can see of you, you would be a natural thief." Ai said.

Camilla perked up and hugged him after that.

After he left, he made sure to collect fifty more gold from Sven and Faendal before going to the blacksmith and obtaining some money as well as a dagger of iron and some leather armor. He also met up with a lumber worker who had him chop some wood for him in exchange for an extra fifty gold and an iron sword.

The trek up the path was pretty easy during the dead of night. He only met two or three wolves on the way, and those were dealt with by the wolf cubs, surprisingly. The wolf cubs managed to beat the wolves with hardly any damage done to them.

He also managed to sneak up on one of the bandits and assassinating him before the wolf cubs killed the second one. The third was an archer that couldn't see him, so he just had one of the wolves trip him off the cliff.

Inside Bleakfalls barrow, there were another two bandits that were talking. Dead skeeters were lying on the floor, and he could see a chest filled with money besides one of the bandits. He had the wolves deal with one while he slashed through the weak bandit with ease. He then pickpocketed the chest and stole the gold and armor from the inside of it.

The pathways had a few easily dispatched bandits before he got to a puzzle gate. The puzzle was pretty easily, as someone had written the answers to it above the places they went and so all he had to do was place the gates in the correct order and press the button.

After that, he went down a few more tunnels and heard a man's voice calling out for help. He peaked around a corner and saw a man trapped in a spider web.

Ai walked in the room, only for a giant spider to drop from the roof and hit the floor with a huge thud.

Ai took out the iron sword and the iron knife that he had and the wolf pups got in ready positions to attack the spider.

Ai charged at the giant Frostbite spider, and the wolves followed the lead. The spider ended up poisoning him a little bit, but he was pretty much fine since the venom didn't hurt him that much.

"Get me down from here." The man commanded.

"Will you give me the claw if I do?" Ai asked.

"What? Yes, of course, anything, just get me down from here." The man promised.

Ai cut down the man and the man than ran.

"Stupid fool." Ai mumbled to himself, inwardly bashing his head in about letting the man go before getting the claw.

Ai ran after him, going deeper through the cave and rushing through the dead Draughr.

Ai finally caught up with him a few passages up; the man was fighting a few Draughr and was worn out.

Ai easily cut the man down with his knife and then stole the 100 gold, journal, and the claw. The journal had all the research notes that the man had gathered for the usage of the claw.

He read through Arniel's journal to figure out that the claw was a key to some sort of treasure according to the research that he had done.

Ai continued fighting through the various Draughr that tried to stop him before coming to the outside and jumping down and hitting the ground.

Ai faced down a door that he used the golden claw to open after figuring out what the three figures were and pushing them into position.

Ai came to a gigantic wall with a coffin in front of it. The wall had a glowing blue word on it that he could read. He read the word but couldn't use it for anything that would be useful.

Afterwards, Ai faced down a lower level Draughr overlord by using his lightning and staying away. The wolves were doing the close range fighting using their teeth to bite him while the lightning attacked the upper body of the overlord. Ai ended up using some of the only magicka potions that he had in order to keep the Draughr from attacking at all.

It took about a minute of a continuous attack in order to defeat the powerful Draughr.

After that, Ai continued up towards a door that would lead him up after looting three chests and getting back to the outside. He then continued back to the Riverwood Trader after fighting the animals that he came across.

"I've got the claw." Ai said before handing the claw to Camilla.

"Thanks." Camilla said before she kissed him in thanks.

"Get packed up in the morning, you're coming with us, don't forget." Ai reminded her.

Camilla got a determined look on her face and said, "I'll get packed right now and leave the shop with you."

Lucas said, "I am going to go through on my promise and give you some stuff for your trip."

Ai then said, "I want four pairs of studded armor, boots, helmet, and gloves as well as four pairs of daggars and swords. I also want any spells that you have available, as well as potions ingredients."

Lucas whistled and said, "That's a heavy demand. But, since you brought the claw back, helped my daughter, and are taking her with you on your journey, I'll comply with it. I have a few of each type of spell right here, as well as some books that will help you on your skills. Here is the armor, and here are the ingredients you asked for."

Lucas then gave them to him.

Ai then called out and said, "Camilla, I'm ready to go."

Camilla then came down in a robe that had two harnesses with knives in them. She also wore black boots. "Sorry, these are easier to move in."

"Come on," Ai said.

They went back to the Sleeping Giant Inn just in time for Hadvar and Ralof to wake up.

"You work fast." Hadvar stated, looking at all the gear, money, ingredients, and books that he had brought back with him. Of course, he was eyeing Camilla, so he might have been talking about something else.

"I've also got a pretty good power base here. A good amount of the people here will help us if it is needed." Ai added.

"That's always good. That's why the empire is based out of solitude and Winterhold is where the Stormcloaks are at. This will at least be a start for this." Ralof stated.

"True, but we are going to need to fortify it more if we want it to be a good hold city, and in order to do that, we need guilds here. For that purpose, the thieves' guild, college of Winterhold, Companions, and Dark Brotherhood are all prime targets, as is the Khajit caravan and anyone that you can gather from your previous armies." Ai stated. "We will also be getting anything that we can find that would be helpful: Gold, lumber, ore, ingots, armor, jewelry, soul gems, weapons, ingredients, food, people, spells, and potions."

"That's a good plan." Ralof said. "But, who are we going to have looked over the supplies and the state of things while we are gone?"

"I was thinking a council made up of Lucas Valerius, Hadvar's family, Gerdur, and the blacksmith. Plus, when we have finished things, we can have them rule by majority." Ai stated.

"That is a very good idea. Plus, it would give the impression of an equal government. Now that we have plans drawn up, we can go to Riften and get you into the thieves' guild." Hadvar said.

So, Hadvar, the wolf cubs, Ralof, Camilla, and Ai headed off on the long trek to Riften.

**Done! I hope you all enjoyed this story. I have kept things mainly the same, but you can see some differences in it already, for one, at the end of this story, Riverwood will be a hold in itself. Another is that I am making it so that Ai has a harem. Also, Camilla is fighting with them. Finally, the emperor or Dragons won't be the main threat, the main threat will be the Thalmar.**


	3. the thieves guild, Mercer, Nightingales

**A/N: Yo! This is harem lord with the new chapter of my Skyrim harem story! This one is going to be the start of the Thieves' guild quest line! It is going to introduce the thieves' guild characters as well! See how Ai handles joining up with the people that he reveres!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Elder scrolls series, I do, however, own Ai and any spells that I make up for the use of this fan fiction.**

**Chapter 3: Riften and the thieves' guild**

It had been a few days since Camilla, Ai, Ralof, Hadvar, and the wolf cubs had left for Riften. They didn't really get into any trouble on the way there except for the odd wolf and bear that would attack them without mercy, but in a group, those were relatively easy to deal with.

The group had kept going on without rest or relaxation and had finally made it to Riften, when a guard suddenly said, "Halt! No one is allowed to pass through this gate."

Ai then replied, "How much would it take to make you open this door for us?"

The guard looked to be sizing them up for a few seconds before he saw the wolf cubs. "Those cubs for my next meal," The guard said with a chuckle.

Ai scowled while the wolf cubs growled and then Ai responded, "How about I just slice open your throat and use the money that you have to open the gate?"

The guard gulped, knowing that he would go through with the threat if he didn't open the gate.

"Very well then, but be careful of the thieves' guild, they are merciless nowadays." The guard said with a sneer on his face.

They got through the gate without any hassle from the other side, not that they were expecting any, and were just about a few steps walking through the city when they met up with a strange man.

"Hey, you," The man called out suddenly, causing them to halt, "I would recommend that you leave this city if you know what's good for you."

"Oh? And you do?" Ai said sarcastically.

"Yeah, with the thieves' guild in this city, it's not very safe these days." The stranger replied.

"Whatever," Ai replied as he walked through with the others following his lead in this situation.

The man growled at being ignored, but decided not to try anything and just stalked off, brooding as he went.

The group went to the market first in order to get some more coin on the fur that they had stripped off the bear and the wolves.

Whenever they were at the market stand, they were approached by a man with long hair.

"Name's Brynolf, and you look like you could use some coin, lad." Brynolf said.

"What's the job?" Ai asked, immediately knowing why he was approached.

"I'm going to be in the middle of the market place, I want you to pick that lock right there and then slip the ring into that man's pocket." Brynolf said.

"So, frame the man because he has spoken out against the thieves' guild?" Ai asked.

"Yep, pretty much. Hey, you look familiar, have we met?" Brynolf said.

"You probably knew my mom; she was a guild member before she left the city to chase after the man that she loved." Ai replied.

"You are Aora's kid?" Brynolf asked. "How is she these days?"

"Hopefully, she is resting under Nocturnal's rule." Ai said sadly.

"She passed away?" Brynolf asked.

"No, she was killed by the Thalmar when they invaded my village." Ai replied angrily.

"Those bastards never know when to quit." Brynolf said.

"No, but back to the task at hand, I'll do it, you just do the distraction for me to do it unnoticeable." Ai said.

"I won't let the son of Aora die in prison." Brynolf said with a smirk.

"Gather round everyone!" Brynolf called out.

Everyone followed Brynolf's advice and Ai snuck into the locked booth inside the stand. The lock was probably a novice level, at best, so, Ai took out one of his picks and, with a few tests, broke the lock with ease. Brynolf noticed and smirked at that.

Ai then looked around the crowd to see if he could find the man that he was supposed to place the stolen ring on. He spotted the man a few people away at the back of the crowd.

Ai snuck through the back of the stands as Brynolf continued talking. The man was so engrossed in the tale that he wasn't even paying attention to make sure that no one picked his pockets in Riften.

Ai then snuck up behind the guy and quite carefully plopped the ring down into the pocket and stole two gold purses out of the man's pockets without him even realizing.

Ai then called out, "Thief! Someone stop the pickpocket!"

This brought everyone's attention to the man in question and the man in question quickly paled at the accusation. "I-I'm not a…" That was as far as the man got before the guards came up.

"I saw the man steal a ring from inside that vault in that stand over there." Ai said while pointing to the stand that he had stolen the ring from.

"I never stole!" The man squawked angrily.

"Check his pockets!" The guard ordered, completely ignoring the man in question.

The guards quickly padded him down and found the stolen ring that Ai had planted on him without his knowledge.

"That's my ring!" The stand keeper yelled in outrage as he rushed back to the stand and found that more of his stuff was missing and the vault had been opened without his knowledge of it.

"You're going to jail now, thief. I won't have any thieves' guild scum polluting this fine city on my watch." The guard said as he grabbed the man's wrist and hauled him off to jail.

Brynolf came up to him and clapped him on the back for the well performed job that Ai had done. "Well done, lad. I can tell that you're Aora's kid now."

"Was there ever any doubt, not everyone can pull together a theft like that." Ai said with great pride in the matter.

Brynolf just chuckled and said, "head through the Ratway, we are just under there," before he left.

Ai then told the group that he had met the thieves' guild and was heading through to it.

The group traveled through the place with relative ease, only having a bit of trouble with the beginning bandits that had made their way into the Ratway without the guild's knowledge of them. The group made it through the traps and the rest of the bandits with ease and even got the chance to stop a few times and pick up some ingredients for potions. Camilla turned out to be quite good at them.

Finally, the group had made it through the Ratway and to the thieves' guilds' headquarters.

The group opened the door and saw a pretty shabby place on the other side of it. The place was pretty run down.

The group was met with a barkeep who asked, "What can I do for you? It's not often that we have guests, ya know."

"Brynolf sent us to join the thieves' guild. He said that I have potential." Ai responded dispassionately.

"Brynolf up to his old tricks again then," The man said with a chuckle.

"Yup," Ai replied while chuckling right along with the other man.

"Go see Mercer; he is the one that you want to see." The man replied before going back to polishing his cup of wine.

"Mercer?" Ai asked incredulously.

Ai then decided to see what was going on In there and walked through the passage that the man had designated and found Brynolf and the man he guessed was Mercer in the center of the room, arguing about something.

"Hello, you're finally here!" Brynolf said excitably.

"This is the man who is Aora's son?" Mercer asked incredulously.

"This is the man who mom wrote about in her journal, she said that you would never have the honor to be a guild leader, I see that she was wrong." Ai said and watched as something flickered in Mercer's eyes that was too quick for most to identify, but Ai wasn't most people, that was for sure, and he noticed the quick flash of rage at the mention of him not having any honor. Ai smirked as he knew that his mother's journal was right at that point and that it was really Mercer that had betrayed the previous guild master and not the woman who was exiled from the guild and being forced to live on the run thanks to the man in front of him.

"Yeah, she always said that I wouldn't ever settle down." Mercer said with a chuckle.

Ai recognized the code for what it was for though, Mercer was trying to find out whether or not Ai knew that he was the one who had betrayed the previous guild master, and if he was, whether or not that he would need to be put down.

Ai then replied, "Of course you won't after everything that you went through with her, Karliah, and Gallus."

Mercer's eyes flashed at the mention of the three of them. Brynolf was watching with confusion, not knowing what the exchange was about.

Ai then smiled in a dark fashion, "Of course, the second you settled down, their ghosts would haunt you for betraying the Nightingales for the skeleton key."

Mercer chose that instant to strike and struck for all that it was worth, but, Ai dodged to the side of the blade and forced Mercer away.

Of course, everyone saw them fight and was in confusion, and Mercer chose that time to slip away from them.

"Damn it! You fools let him get away." Ai cursed as he beat on the ground.

"What are you talking about?" Vex asked.

"Mercer murdered Gallus and blamed Karliah, and then he stole the Skeleton key from Nocturne's sacred area." Ai explained.

"What are you talking about? Tanilla asked confusedly.

"Haven't you ever wondered why the Thieves' Guild had such bad luck after Mercer became Guild Master?" Ai asked.

"You don't mean?" Brynolf asked, finally figuring out what was going on.

"Mercer stole the Skeleton key and caused Nocturne to reverse her blessing on us into a curse." Ai explained.

"Oh gods, we all fell for it!" Sapphire said.

"Of course you did, Karliah didn't get here first and Mercer forged evidence against her." Ai said.

"What should we do to stop him?" Brynolf asked.

"First, we need to elect a new Guild Master." Ai said.

Everyone looked confused at why that would happen first.

"It's because of the fact that we can't be running around in disarray right now while Mercer is free and running around with such a great object." A feminine voice said.

"Nice of you to join us, Karliah!" Ai exclaimed.

"I take it that your second task was finding me?" Karliah asked.

"Yes, that was going to be it, only a Nightingale can kill another Nightingale, or so it is claimed." Ai said.

"What was the third task for the guild?" Vex asked.

"To have some worthy people in the room get the blessing of Nocturne." Ai said.

"Were you included in that?" Sapphire teased.

Ai looked insulted, "Of course I didn't, I am unworthy of claiming Nocturne's blessing for myself. I was thinking Vex, Sapphire, Tanilla, or Brynolf for the last two spots."

All of the girls blushed at the fact that he considered them good enough to get the Nightingale spots.

"I think that we may be able to convince Nocturne to make an exception and create a whole new class if it is to stop Mercer from getting away." Karliah said.

Ai blinked and said, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go and get Nocturne's blessing!"

Everyone cheered and rushed out in order to get the blessing.

**Done! I've finished the third chapter and will finish the Thieves' guild quest line with the next chapter. I hope that you all enjoy this!**


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